BV defends home turf in 8th of May league

The place to have been on Saturday evening was the Beterverwagting (BV) playground as the BV/Triumph 8th of May Movement hosted the finals of their Emancipation Cohesion Football League.
The league has been heating up over the past few weeks, with many of the favorite teams slated to compete for not only cash and prizes, but also bragging rights on the final night.
The penultimate clash of the night saw two consistent teams going head to head for the third place trophy. The teams, from Mahaica and Tucville, put on an excellent encounter with a showcase of professionalism in ball control, communication and passing.
With the encounter already shortened to 80 minutes, both teams were fixed on being the first to score, knowing that it would present an advantage over their opponent.
Twenty one minutes into the game, and Leon Richardson connected the ball with the back of the net to give the Tucville team the lead. Little did either side know Richardson’s goal was the winning, and that Mahaica would be unable to score despite their best efforts. The 1-0 result in Tucville’s favour mean that they would lift the third place trophy and walk away with the BV/Triumph 8th of May Movement/ Gladstone O Benjamin, Bronze Award prize of $150,000.
The final matchup was truly fitting for the title, with a competitive 90 minutes of play. Both teams had gone through the tournament undefeated, and the clash was highly anticipated by the vibrant crowd.
Eastveldt seemed bent on upsetting the home team BV, and every player seemed to have lay down their lives for the right to be crowned champions. The passion, skill, strategy and teamwork were a beauty to behold, as both teams gave of their best on the day, taking the 90 minutes encounter into half time at 0-0.
On resumption, and just three minutes into the second half, Junior Alleyne made a desperate but smart move from the right wing to create an opening in Eastveldt’s defence, then immediately finish the play with a stunning right boot past the Eastveldt goal-keeper’s grasp. It seemed to bore the goal net, registering BV’s first goal of the match.
Alleyne’s goal threw the fans into a frenzy and catapulted the electric atmosphere to new heights for the remainder of the match.
The never say die approach of Eastveldt in its effort to create an equalizer and take the match into extra time was frustrated by the BV team; and their supporters, and subsequently in despair, Eastveldt seemingly folded as BV’s Omari Glasgow, with 9 minutes of scheduled time remaining, showed what BV players are made of, when he “miloed” the goal net, to inadvertently declare BV, as the inaugural BV/Triumph 8th of May Movement/ Bakewell Gold Crown Champions, and the right to walk away with $350,000.
Eastveldt, having then suffered their only loss in the league, appeared to acknowledge their demise in the finals, to a team that played better football on the day, BV. Eastveldt received the BV/Triumph 8th of May Movement/ Lloyd WP Britton Silver Honour prize of $250,000.
In a fleet of special awards, Ian Dooker of BV walked away with the ‘doving skill’ prizeof $20,000 and a trophy after he defeated Mahaica’s Joseph Defreitas in the U20 skill exercise final.
The BV/Triumph 8th of May Movement later revealed that U20 players Trevon Adams (Mahaica), Ian Dooker and Omari Glasgow (BV) are the three beneficiaries of the Academic/Vocational Awards sponsored by Restoration Opportunities through Christ (ROC).
These awards are worth $180,000 each for the period September, 2018 to August 2019, at a value of $15,000 monthly, and are to assist in aiding the holistic development of the youngsters.